Strengths: Westbrook is a tremendous athlete capable of making explosive plays … Moves well with the ball in his hands … Has the ability to create scoring opportunities for himself off the dribble … Gets a good deal of separation from his defender thanks to his explosiveness first step … Once in the lane Westbrook has the leaping ability and body control to either dunk the ball or finish with a lay-up in traffic … Willing passer who creates most assists off driving to the basket then dishing it off … Excellent finisher in transition where he is capable of making some high energy plays …Defensively shows good lateral movement, quick hands, long arms and solid anticipation skills to play the passing lanes … These qualities effectively allow him to disrupt and pressure even the most polished players on the perimeter … Has three point range on his jumper when his feet are set … Owns an NBA ready body that is strong and compact … This enables him to absorb contact in the lane and finish … Aggressive mindset provides him with a decent number of opportunities to draw contact for free throw shots … Above average ball handler capable of using various crossovers to get past his man … Despite the height difference of most players at the shooting guard position, Westbrook has no problem shooting over them due to the high elevation on his jumper … Has the ability to move over to the point guard position and provide relief in spot minutes … Court vision isn’t exceptional, but shows great promise … Unselfish player who constantly looks to pass the ball to open teammates … Owns the gym rat attitude to develop and has been labeled a coachable player with a desire to learn … Huge upside, as he's only begun to scratch the surface of his potential …

Weaknesses: A tweener at his position by NBA standards - too short for the shooting guard and lacks the mentality for the point … This could effect his standings with NBA personnel as combo guards with shooting guard tendencies are very hard to convert and don’t have a high success rate … Can become turnover prone when pressured heavily … A streaky perimeter shooter in every sense of the word … This prevents him from being able to consistently use pull-up jumpers from mid-range … Tries too hard going for the spectacular play where he can get a little wild in the open court … Attempts to force driving to the basket when his jump shot isn’t dropping … While he has three point range he’s much better with his feet set rather than having to shoot off the dribble … As a point guard prospect he lacks exceptional court vision and doesn’t always do a good job of analyzing the opposing defense … His shooting struggles and makes him a prime candidate for issues with effectiveness in a half court set … A player with his exceptional level of potential should be considered a high risk high reward pick …

Comments

He is the next Monta Ellis. In fact, Ellis wasn't this good in high school. He'll be even better. His Final Four performance was absolutely dominant, he put up 22 points, and couldn't be stopped. He is a good decision maker and has X-ray decision making skills. His team still played well in even Collison's absence, so this kid has great toughness. He's a dynamite rebounder and is a super defender, and moves well laterally. This kid is almost a lock to be a lottery pick, and at worst is in the 20s, and could be neck and neck up with Rose and Augustin. Worst case scenario, he could be like Jameer Nelson or Chris Duhon, and that would still be kind of good.